Hawaii lost both of its senators in the last couple of months. Senator Akaka is retiring and Senator Inouye, who was a senator when I was living there as a child, recently died at the age of 88. He spent something like 5 decades in the senate. Amazing.
But do you know what is even more amazing? In January 2013, Hawaii may be sending not one but *two* women to replace these two senators. Mazie Hirono is already scheduled to replace Akaka. And Colleen Hanabusa was Senator Inouye’s preferred replacement for his seat. She has yet to be appointed by Neil Abercrombie, Hawaii’s Democratic governor but we shall see.
Stop me if this is old news. I don’t watch cable TV and news of Inouye’s replacement has been scarce.
So that would take us up to how many women in the senate? Have we cracked 20 yet?
It’s progress. I’ll take what I can get.
One other note. Of the Congressional delegation from Hawaii, both Hirono and Hanabusa are Buddhists, first and possibly second ever in the Senate, and the new representative from the second district, Tulsi Gabbard, is a Hindu.
Filed under: General | Tagged: Colleen Hanubasa, Democrats, Mazie Hirono, Senate, Tulsi Gabbard |
The Confluence 
Fire Dog Lake was arguing that the story about Hannabusa was fabricated by the Washington Post. The problem is that she was seen as the initial favorite by the Honolulu newspaper (the one survivor as of 2010). The Hawaii article pre-dated the WaPo story.
Of course FDL had three other candidates they were pushing. The favorite was a white male for a state where non-Hispanic whites make up 25% of the population. Their weak argument was that the choice of the Lt. Gov would save money as the state would not have to pay for an election to fill the vacant House seat. Pretty lame.
I thought the arguments on all the candidates made perfect sense and especially the cost and the possibility of a mis-fire to replace Hanabusa. The writer lives in Hawaii. The comments about Inouye didn’t surprise, at all. Long incumbent politicians often get pretty imperious, whatever face they show to the public.
No political thoughts at the moment, but Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Further Hawaiian details. Apparently, Both Inouye and Hannabusa supported Hillary Clinton. Abercrombie and Schatz are Obamanites. So the “split” is really a disguised version of the bot wars.
Abercrombie has turned out to be an unpopular Governor. His biggest reason for appointing Hannabusa is to prevent her from challenging him in a 2014 primary for Governor. We shall see if old grudges count for more than self interest.
In politics, I would lean to the side of self-interest. There’s not much more to politicians.
If that is true, then that is hopeful. Enough pressure against Democratic Officeholders might get them to abandon Their president’s effort to destroy our survival benefits out of their own re-election self-interest. IF! enough constituents successfully convince enough D-officeholders that their re-election self-interest really DOES hinge on rejecting the Simpson-Obama Catfood Plan.
Perhaps if enough constituents plant the counter-meme to the fiscal cliff in enough D-officeholder brains, it might spread from their to the MSBM (Main Stream Big Media).
The “fiscal cliff” is a propaganda scare tactic. There is no such thing as a fiscal cliff. What there is . . . is a fiscal reset. A reset back to Clinton Rates. Lets hit the Clinton Reset button.
If you’re talking about tax rates, let’s hit the Eisenhower Reset.
That would be ideal. Over the next few weeks that would be too hard and demanding a case to make. Whereas “hit the Clinton reset” would strike some familiar notes in the minds of today. So I will settle for “hit the Clinton Reset button” for now and then work towards the Eisenhower Optimum in the fullness of time.
Read over at talk left that the governor has appointed Schatz. There is a guy there who is on the committee to make the recommendation to the governor.
Unfortunately, Schatz is the choice. The heavy hand of Obama may have been pivotal. Schatz is flying back to Hawaii and Obama wanted him immediately for the fiscal cliff vote. We are being told that Obama needs something that will pass both the House and the Senate. Does this sound like a sell out, or what?
Well . . . how many Hawaiians are ready to tell Mr. Schats ( or his office personell) that they will vote against him in his first election if he votes for any form or trace of cuts or any changes at all to SS/Mcare/Mcaide? Enough to scare him out of it?
hawai…..
Sorry RD, Obama’s childhood Governor friend is appointing his Lt. Governor Brian Schatz despite Senator Inouye’s endorsement of Rep. Colleen Hanabusa. I guess the Democrats don’t want women to get to uppity, is my guess. The meme of ‘support women’, is just a line they push out for their benefit.
2008 Primary memories…
Or could it be that Obama and the Catfood Democrats want the next Hawaii Senator to be reliably Catfood Democrat? Or could it be both at once? Either way, are there enough Hawaiians who value their survival benefits to scare Schatz into supporting them instead of supporting Obama? Are there Hawaiians ready to get revenge on the Governor for supporting Catfood Schatz for emergency-Senator?
I thought the same thing and that may be what drove Abercrombie. But I looked into Hanabusa further and I didn’t like what I read. When she was the head of the state senate, she organized the rousting of a Democratic Attorney General who conducted an investigation of a trust for Native Hawaiians that was being run by clearly corrupt individuals. There have been a number of suspicious financial deals related to legislative business that significantly benefited her husband and other members of her family. I won’t support any Obot but I can’t get in a fever when someone with Hanabusa’s record gets passed over even if she is a woman and supported Hillary.
Schatz seems to have a clear record so, other than his support for Obama, I don’t see anything to dislike about him. The third candidate was another woman who has a great education and a solid record but she’s never been able to get many votes when she’s run for office. Hawaiian politics seems to be more complex than in some states because of racial cliques and resentments and the odd land deals and trusts that are ripe pickin’s for corrupt politicians no matter what their party.
If he has a clean record, then he may have a clean mind. He may be extortable into opposing President Droney McCatfood’s Grand Catfood Bargain if he can be made to feel enough political torture and terror over the next few days or possibly weeks.
That would require a critical tipping point massload of Hawaiians to tell Schatz’s mail readers and phone-answerers
that they will not ever vote for Schatz for anything ever again unless he rigidly rejects the Grand Catfood Swindle. Since I am not Hawaiian, any carpetbagging notes/letters/telegrams/phone calls from me would mean nothing. It is really up to Hawaiians to generate enough political torture and terror upon Schats to peel him away from Droney McCatfood, if they can. From here, I can do nothing.
Memelaunch suggestion alert:
Droney McCatfood sounds a little clumsy to say, so I offer two other suggestions. Barry McCatfood. It sounds “kind of like” Barry McCaffrey . . . a name known to many center-right people. But just different enough that it might trigger a double-take listen . . and then questions.
Or how about Bronco McCatfood? The “Bronco Bama” meme took off kinda, so maybe it can be edged over into Bronco McCatfood and the meaning made clear?
Just thoughts.